CAM may provide a limited short-term benefit in patients with symptom burden. Additional studies are needed to clarify the potential value of CAM in the hospice or palliative setting.

Objectives Describe the development of a novel instrument to measure resident knowledge and self-efficacy in palliative care. Discuss the psychometric analysis used to assess this novel palliative care competency-based instrument. Original Research Background. We developed a needs assessment based on consensus palliative care (PC) competencies for internal medicine (IM) residents to identify baseline knowledge and self-efficacy as a first step in developing a competency-based PC curriculum (Shaefer, 2014). Research Objectives. To evaluate a novel competency-based instrument assessing residents' self-efficacy and knowledge in PC. Methods. We created a 2-part instrument with a knowledge test (KT; 14 questions) and self-efficacy inventory (SEI; 35 statements) addressing 13 core resident PC competencies across 5 domains: Pain/ Symptom Management (PSM); Communication (COMM); Psychosocial/Spiritual/Cultural Aspects of Care (PSC); Terminal Care/Bereavement (TCB); and PC Principles/Practice (PCPP). We distributed the instrument to all IM residents between June-July 2015. We performed a standard item analysis on the KT; for the SEI, we measured internal consistency (Cronbach's Alpha) and variable relationships among the domains (Pearson's bivariate correlations).